Strong Off-Resonant Enhancement of Spontaneous Emission in Metal-Dielectric-Metal Plasmon Waveguide Structures

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates significant off-resonant enhancement of spontaneous emission in metal-dielectric-metal plasmon waveguides, enabling efficient coupling to plasmon modes for nanoscale light sources and integrated circuits.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of strong off-resonant emission enhancement in metal-dielectric-metal waveguides, highlighting their potential for nanoscale photonic applications.

Findings

Strong off-resonant emission enhancement due to mode confinement

Efficient coupling of dipole emission into plasmon waveguide modes

Potential applications in nanoscale light sources and integrated circuits

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the spontaneous emission process of an optical, dipolar emitter in metal-dielectric-metal slab and slot waveguide structures. We find that both structures exhibit strong off-resonant emission enhancements due to the tight confinement of modes between two metallic plates. The large enhancement of surface plasmon-polariton excitation enables dipole emission to be preferentially coupled into plasmon waveguide modes. These structures find applications in creating nanoscale local light sources or in generating guided single plasmons in integrated optical circuits.